voice like a rusty saw being driven through a pine knot, but his themes evidently leave nothing to be desir-jed. Finally they erect a platform, provide themselves with a huge) bulk of timber attached to ropes, jand the concert begins, The performers mount the platform, arrange themselves round th rand attach themselves to the lesser gentler mn the ground of timber hits the pile every the music can take caro of itself as far as they fare concerned. Everything being ready, the soloist proceeds with a strophe; anything that catches his eye is good enough to make a song There is a lull in that, quarto bout it only lasts a short gbime, for a tinsmith who has just st a rush order for new. boilers for the ad-al's flagship, has decided. to start at once. It is now eleven p.m fand a hot, still nights yes, very hot, but not quite as, still' as one yearns fog it to be. The perambulating kiehens, scouting customers in. the midst of all this activity, have joined the throng, and are whacking' those hollow bamboos "of theirs' for all they are worth, The tinsmith, with the" assistance of a few of his offspring, has Laid a sheet of zine fon the side-walk, and: has cut out nice boiler with the aid of " pair of scissors. They are now all bang ing away for dear life putting:
Meanwhile tne, wife of his heart chats with a neighbour several yards distant down the street. Her voice rises shrilly. above the clangour of hammers Litting: metal. She is: just person passing," he chants, "her blue eyes are like sapphires, and her golden hair glitters in the st would our sloe-eyed ones could show such glorious beauty." Now altogether boys! "Hi yah, hi yah, hi yow yow," sings the horas' in unison.
"Her silk dress fits hor angel figure perfectly." "Yow, yow, Yow, yah, hi, yah, hi yah."
"ig it did not, 1'd find the miser-late tailor who made it and go over him with his own bot iron."
Chorus again, as before.
"That would' lan him' to do proper work for the flower who sheds such fragrance on our land, Chorus, "Hi yah, hi yah, ad. lib. [And so on from the ficer faint rose lof dawn, to an opalescent eve, until th, black peart of night descends.
Then the builders take up the burden of the day's work in the cool lof the evening. - They, poor souls, have no minstrel, or' chorus. to lighten' the night's' tail, Armed with a hammer, a handful of nails, land a ton or of planks, they proceed to demonstrate the' dignity of labour. Knowing that to labour is to pray, they pray unceasingly, and reck mot of the passing hours, nor lof the foolish ones who have worked fall day and would fain rest at night. They start; crash bang, crash bang, seech bang. which is only inter" supted by the' discovery that they they want more hammers, or nai The Would-be Sleeper in the midst of a thrilling account of how her sister, Little Jade Flower's youngest twin, has kop' them awake all day with the whoop. val fine with he family thi ing cough; the poor gir! has had an
spring... she's had eight in seven years. two sets of twins, and what with the price of rice and one thing and another... at this moment the conversation' is inter rupted by Tsai Wen roughly ordering her to "shut up," for the arm fof the law has just arrived in response to a plaintive phone message complaining about the noise. He sternly tolls the har assed Tsai Wen that "if the admiral wants a new boiler he must get busy in the daytime," and then proceeds to direct the gathering up of the sheets of zine; these are dropped several times on the pavement, together with all the rivets, hammers ete. that can be found, the olive-branches assisting him' in jelosing the works' for the night.
'Meanwhile little Jade Flower's sister across the way, at, the top lof her voice is advising Mrs. Tsai Wen not to be "put on"; "if her husband dared to talk to' her Tike that"... out her tirade comes to an untimely end, for the worried My. Tsai Wen has forcibly shoved his. vociferating spouse through the door of the shop and shut and barred At two a.m, the tired one sue~ ceeds in falling asleep. The bliss lasts till six o'clock when a workmen's tram comes clattering along planks, and that young perisher of|These and many other sounds suc-boy, whose duty is to keep the cessfully wake the would-be sleeper [prayerful ones supplied, is nowhere|to another day of toil and. heat.—in sight, "Just wait till they lay Mary Peyton Critic,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.